I love this profession, but not everything about it is puppies and rainbows. In this episode, I give you 10 reasons you may not want to pursue a career in an emergency department. Unless the reasons get you excited. Then you should totally do it!

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This episode covers positive pressure ventilation – both invasive and non-invasive, discusses what reasons we may see that use positive pressure to help our patients, and some troubleshooting for ventilators. Patients who are short of breath will be a daily problem that you will encounter, and this gives you the low-down on the aggressive treatments!

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After a way-too-long hiatus, I’m back! This episode discusses the state of the podcast, where it’s going in the future, and covering drugs used around rapid sequence intubation. Thank you to everyone who has sent me messages, I feel honored to be a small part of this community!

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Blood gas normal values (check with your own facility):

pH – 7.35-7.45
CO2 – 35-45
HCO3 – 22-26

ROME – Respiratory Opposite, Metabolic Equal

Think of CO2 as acid: High CO2 = acidic

Respiratory – fast compensation
Metabolic – slow compensation

Anion Gap: traditional (Na + K) – (Cl + HCO3),  modern equation Na – (Cl + HCO3)

So you don’t have to track through all the mnemonics listed in the show, here they are in a quick summary, as well as the link to the  Blakemore Tube Insertion

Pain mnemonic: OPQRST

O – Onset (when did this start, what were you doing at the time?)
P – Provoking and Palliative (what makes this pain better or worse?)
Q – Quality (what does it feel like? Remember, pressure and tightness are pain!)
R – Region and Radiation (point to where it hurts, where does the pain go from there?)
S – Severity (0-10 scale)
T – Time (how long does the pain last, have you had it before, how does it feel compared to times in the past?)

Chest Pain BIG BAD UGLIES mnemonic: PET MAC

P – PE
E – Esophageal Rupture
T – Tension Pneumothorax
M – MI
A – Aortic Dissection
C – Cardiac Tamponade

Chest Pain focused physical assessment: AABBCC

A – Appearance (do they *look* sick? responsive? labored breathing?)
A – Auscultations (remember to palpate the chest while you’re auscultating heart sounds to check for pain you can reproduce)
B – Back
B – Belly (any auscultated or palpated pulses? tender to palpation pain?)
C – Circulation (radial, cap refill, turgor, JVD, edema [unilateral vs. bilateral, pitting vs. non-pitting], dorsalis pedis, cap refill in toes)
C – Color (pale? jaundiced? pink, warm, and dry? lower extremity discoloration?)